May Frugals

[SteveinMN]

Today's frugals: I found out through a "deals" site I visit daily that the item I bought yesterday was on sale -- new, not open-box -- at another store/Web site for $75 less than I paid. The chain at which I bought ours price-matched, but over the phone chain "central" told me that since I bought an open-box product, they could not give me the other vendor's price. I decided to go to the store directly and speak with a manager, impressing on them that I could buy a sealed box of the product (on which they would match the price) and bring back the open-box item (which they would then need to process as a return and advertise as available on the Web site again) or they could bend the rules a bit and give me the difference back right there. Sensible heads prevailed and I got the credit for the price difference. I saved $75 (plus tax minus one gallon of diesel) for about an hour spent driving and in the store. I don't think I can top that frugality today.

But dinner will be a small frugal. We, too, have been doing the Friday pizza thing, and typically have just bought whichever one was $8 this week at Papa Murphy's. It's about as much as we go out to restaurants anymore. Well, we tried a new brand of frozen pizza last week that we both really liked. I found it in the store yesterday, at two for $11. Pizza tonight will be one of those. Might go back and stock up some, though they take a lot of freezer space we don't have.

[Tussiemussies]

Hi Steve, what a great way to handle your purchase!

[rosarugosa]

For you pizza purchasers, DH can put together a homemade pizza in less than 10 minutes. We buy the dough at the grocery store, so we could do it even cheaper if we made the dough (might try it in the new bread machine). So just a thought, I know it's easy for me to say since I don't cook, but his is better than store bought and probably costs us about three bucks (feeds the two of us plus leftovers).

[Tussiemussies]

For you pizza purchasers, DH can put together a homemade pizza in less than 10 minutes. We buy the dough at the grocery store, so we could do it even cheaper if we made the dough (might try it in the new bread machine). So just a thought, I know it's easy for me to say since I don't cook, but his is better than store bought and probably costs us about three bucks (feeds the two of us plus leftovers).

Hi Rosa, there is a board just for pizza connesouirs (Sp.)
I believe it is just called pizza forums. I learned a lot of great tips on as to how to make pizza just as crispy as a pizzarea. You may like it.

[rosarugosa]

Thanks, TM. I don't spend much time on the Food Forum since I don't cook, but I should because I do eat food and I have a lot of input on what we buy & eat! I'll check it out.
Mixed bag yesterday as far as frugality goes. DH & I had bloodwork done as part of a "know your numbers" initiative from my employer. I will get a $200 credit on my health insurance premium for doing the testing. This spawned a surprise frugal. We were supposed to fast for the bloodwork, but I know that it's OK to drink black coffee before bloodwork. I always put light cream in my coffee though; I've never been able to stand black coffee. Yesterday I made it with a pinch of cinnamon, and I liked it just fine black So now I can stop buying light cream, which will also make my coffee healthier (DH already prefers it black).
On the other hand, I went to a specialty optometrist for my glasses, and they are going to be extremely expensive (even with my vision coverage) compared to what I spent at Costco last year. I'll use this as a test though and see if I notice any difference in terms of quality. Presumably I am getting a better product in terms of progressive lens technology and lightweight lens material. We will see!

[redfox]

Since the sun has come out in Seattle, I decided I would actually wear Capri length pants... So, off to GW, and home with a pair of white linen ones. $6. This pair & a few of my linens skirts with fav t-shirts, bam! Summer wardrobe!

[chrissieq]

We had decided to order pizza for delivery last night but once I got home from work, DH said let's just use what's here - yea!! Had some jicama and pea pods left from yesterday's school lunch, added spinach and cucumber so had a good salad along with the BOGO frozen pizza with some left for my lunch today. He is helping at a Habitat-type project today so will get lunch there.

And since he took the car to that project, I am home bound - again yea!! So far have done 5 loads of laundry (changing out the winter comforter for spring bedding), sanded and painted the two screen windows that were pretty weather-beaten last year, and loaded up our new single sort recycling tub. Dinner for tonight is ready to go in the fridge for later.

I love this kind of day!!

[cdttmm]

I haven't had much for frugals to report lately, but I'll try to add something to the thread. Had to pick up two prescriptions at the pharmacy this week, but when I got there they told me my new insurance card wasn't working. The non-insurance rate would have been more than $100 so I decided to wrestle with the insurance company's website to see if I could figure out what was up. Time well spent, as I was able to print a temporary card, which did work, and the prescriptions cost me less than $10 total (which is weird, because I thought they were $15 each, but I wasn't going to argue with the nice pharmacist!).

Used the Gas Buddy app to find the cheapest place to fill up on diesel when I was out.

Got a $4 credit at the vet clinic because they overcharged me for an office visit. Of course, used it for the next vet appt so that credit didn't last long!

Put off grocery shopping and told my significant other than I was not going to shop for a few more days and that I wanted to eat up what was in the house. He agreed to make sushi one night this week. We'll also eat corn chowder (from the freezer), vegetarian chili (also from the freezer), and lots of salad (our greens are doing very well!) this week. I'll probably make a frittata one day this week, too, since we have everything on hand.

I'm gluten-free and rather than buying GF bread I buy rice cakes to eat with peanut butter for breakfast or lunch. I bought a different brand of rice cakes this week -- cheaper than what I was buying -- but I don't like them as well. I hate to waste food so I decided to experiment a little bit. I discovered that although they are not that tasty with peanut butter and raisins, which is how I usually eat them, they were more palatable with peanut butter and homemade apple butter. Well, we have plenty of apple butter in the freezer (we have an apple orchard) so I'm going to be buying the cheaper rice cakes for the foreseeable and eating lots of apple butter!

This morning I made a batch of yogurt, it's in the crockpot now so we'll have yogurt for breakfast this week. I've been eating mine flavored with homemade strawberry jam that we got from our neighbors last season. So good! I also made a double batch of chocolate tapioca pudding, which allowed me to use up a few cups of almond milk and some dark chocolate that was otherwise not going to get eaten (how that happens in this house, I do not know!). Making yogurt every week for breakfasts and tapioca pudding every week for a treat (instead of buying our usual premium ice cream) would shave about $300 off our grocery bill in the course of a year. So I'm going to try to get organized enough to commit to that. I figure I can experiment with different flavors of tapioca pudding (so far I've only ever made chocolate and chocolate-mint) and that should keep things interesting.

Another food-related experiment I'm going to try. We have loads of homemade applesauce in our freezer. I'm thinking of firing up the food dehydrator and attempting to turn applesauce into apple leather. I'm hoping it will work because we are not big applesauce eaters, but we love fruit leathers and this would be one more step in cleaning out our freezer!

For entertainment this week, I've been re-watching the TV show "The Dresden Files" on Netflix. Doesn't cost us anything extra (we're already paying for a Netflix subscription) and it provides me with just the level of entertainment/distraction that I need.

Aside from that, I've been trying to spend more time cleaning the house -- always good frugal fun! I figure that a clean house is a more pleasant living environment and that probably helps to cut down on the random I'm-unhappy-with-my-environment induced spending that might come about.

[early morning]

I figure that a clean house is a more pleasant living environment and that probably helps to cut down on the random I'm-unhappy-with-my-environment induced spending that might come about.

cdttmm, that's great! - also my major downfall. Thanks for the inspiration - DD and I just cleaned the kitchen and it looks great. Now if I can just keep up a bit of momentum!

[Blackdog Lin]

The bad news: it's really not frugal to be gaining weight.....but it is what it is. sigh. With the (slightly) warmer weather, it was time to get out the summer wardrobe and bummer! 60% of last years clothes don't fit this year.

The good (and frugal) news: offering to do a favor for a casual friend, taking her for a medical procedure 2 hours away, and having to kill 4 hours during her procedure, I found a Goodwill store and scored 10! button-down shirts and 3 pairs of shorts for $52.00. It was awesome, and other than a new swim-shorts purchase, I'm done with clothes-shopping for the summer.